James Cameron Reveals He Added a Major Scene to Avatar: Fire and Ash That He Was Saving for a Later Film
James Cameron confirms that Avatar: Fire and Ash brings back Jake Sully’s legendary Toruk in a key scene he originally saved for a future sequel. The film releases December 19, 2025.
Director James Cameron reveals Jake Sully’s Toruk returns in Avatar: Fire and Ash, releasing December 19, 2025.
The third instalment in the blockbuster sci-fi franchise is supposed to contain a pivotal scene that Cameron had originally held back to place in a sequel.
The film, which will be released on the 19th of December, 2025, is set after the events of Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and is the third in a slate of five planned films, with Avatar 5 slated for 2031.
Cameron expressed in his conversation with Variety that during the writing of Fire and Ash, a feeling of something was just missing from the story. Hence, he decided to bring back the cherished element: the Toruk, which is a huge red banshee-like airborne creature that the protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) rode during the climax of the first Avatar.
“I’ve always been waiting for the question, ‘Why doesn’t Jake just go get the big red bird and kill everybody like he used to do?’ That didn’t exist in The Way of Water at all,” Cameron explained.
“I was saving it for a later film. But then I thought—forget that! He should get the bird. There’s something in Jake’s destiny that requires it.”
Cameron revealed that he rewrote parts of the script, filmed new sequences featuring the Toruk, and restructured sections of the movie. The result? A three-hour epic, which the director says now feels “absolutely right.”
The cast, reportedly including Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Winslet, embraced the change, according to Cameron, who said of its reinstatement into the story, "They were all pretty excited about bringing back such an iconic piece of Avatar lore."
Beyond Avatar
Cameron is also preparing his next project during the work on the Avatar saga: an adaptation of Charles R. Pellegrino's book Ghosts of Hiroshima. He called it "the most challenging film I may ever make" because he is still figuring out how to balance the horror of the subject matter with themes of poetry, beauty, and spiritual epiphany.
